A thin bench

2008 presidential candidate Mitt Romney, about to freestyle "Who Let The Dogs Out?"

Mitt Romney has unveiled his Black Leadership Council.

They will help him talk to black people:

In the months to come, this group will help facilitate dialogue between Mitt Romney and respected leaders who provide unique expertise, experience and knowledge on a range of issues impacting black American communities.

The Council has eighteen members and three co-chairs. “I am proud to have the endorsements of so many leaders in the black community,” said Mitt Romney.

Apparently, what Romney's after is a big ol' Amen Corner. Mostly his Council is made up of GOP reliables: all two of the black members of the 165-member Republican National Committee; two former football players; a failed congressional candidate; a failed gubernatorial candidate; an Ohio county auditor; a Georgia county commissioner; a minister; a state legislator, a few state GOP apparatchiks.

The three co-chairs are Congressman Allen West of Florida, the lieutenant governor of Florida, Jennifer Carroll; and SC's own Congressman Tim Scott.

Striking are the missing: former Congressmen J.C. Watts and Gary Franks; former NFL player and minister Ken Hutcherson; Bishop Harry Jackson; former Republican National Committee chair Michael Steele; Kenneth Blackwell, the former Ohio secretary of state and candidate for governor; Herman Cain, the CEO of Self; former Cheney advisor Ron Christie; Rush Limbaugh program producer James Golden; former Bush HUD secretary Alphonso Jackson; Rev. Alveda King; former Bush Education Secretary Rod Paige; Star Parker; former Bush Secretaries of State Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice; former Bush FCC chair Michael Powell...

Romney has a bunch of advisory council like this, but there isn't one for gay voters. That's odd, since in recent presidential elections about a quarter of the gay vote has gone to GOP presidential tickets. 25% is way better than Romney's polling among the voters his Black Leadership Council wants to help him reach. Maybe he can afford to take them for granted.